To Beautiful, Nutritious, Pungent Garlic

Oh, that miracle clove!

Not only does garlic taste good,

it cures baldness and tennis elbow, too.

                         - Lauri Burrows Grad

                               Los Angeles Magazine 

Methinks Ms. Grad may have been enjoying a glass or two of a good vino while waxing poetically about garlic! 

Nonetheless, I wholeheartedly agree that garlic tastes good and is also nutritionally super-good for us.  (Haven't seen a vampire around here in ages.)  I grow garlic and it's much enjoyed and used regularly in my cooking.

'Round about the middle of August I took my trusty spade out into the garden and harvested this year's crop.  Sad to say, it was not as plentiful as in years past, but the bulbs that did grow were large.  Cause of less than a bountiful harvest?  Too much moisture?  Not enough heat at the right time?  I don't know.

I hung the bulbs with stalks still attached in our small wood shed to cure.  All our rain and humidity have, no doubt, not provided the best conditions for curing, but I decided today I needed to clean and store the bulbs for winter. 

I don't know how commercial garlic producers get their bulbs to look so white and clean.  Mine certainly never do.

There were 49 bulbs to process, but my original harvest was 60, if I remember correctly.  I must confess to "stealing" several bulbs during the curing process and encouraging Chicken Mama to do the same.  The bulk of the ones I pilfered went into jars of my Minnesota Kimchi I've made and squirreled away in the spare refrigerator for our winter's supply.

The reason I'm thinking curing conditions weren't ideal this year is because I found 13 bulbs that aren't in good storing condition as shown in the basket on the right in the picture above.  (Undesirable growing conditions?  I didn't dig them at the correct time?  Too much humidity during curing time?  The garlic gods have something against me?)  The cloves have separated and they're lacking adequate layers of "skin" to cover the bulbs properly.  These will have to be used first before the other 36 that seem to be of good keeping quality.

I've ordered more garlic to plant this fall as I'm sure the harvest from this year won't be enough to provide us with an adequate supply over winter let alone allow me to use some of the bulbs to plant this fall as a future crop.

The up side is that nearly all the bulbs are a very good size with many lovely cloves, too.  Am I overjoyed with the garlic harvest?  Not so much, but at the same time very grateful for what I did get.  Next year will be better.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Come again another day.  It rained sporadically yesterday morning.  Rained all last night.  Rained this morning until about 11 o'clock.  You can turn off the faucet anytime now, Mother Nature.

Thankfully the temperature has dropped a few degrees so it doesn't feel so oppressively hot and humid.  Just humid right now.

When Papa Pea came in from doing some necessary tasks outside mid-morning, he said even the ducks looked wet.  It's not a problem though because all the poultry have the choice of spending these wet days inside dry pens if they wish.  The geese and ducks would just as soon be out in the elements.  The chickens . . . not so much.

It's nearly noon now and I've got some B-B-Q'd duck meat I've pulled out of the freezer heating up for lunch sandwiches.  Still have oodles of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes so I'll made a cuke/tomato salad as a side dish.

A pan of Apple Slices is cooling on a rack on the counter, but they'll be too hot to slice before dessert for dinner tonight.  Or they may be cut into for "someone's" afternoon coffee break if "someone" has anything to say about it.  I don't drink coffee after my morning latte and find if I eat anything at afternoon coffee break, I'm not hungry come dinner time.  And when the cook isn't hungry, the cook doesn't want to cook.  At least that's the case for this cook.

Made a pot of Cheddar-Cauliflower Soup this morning with some of our cauliflower from this year's garden harvest.  This particular soup is always better the second day so that will be for sometime tomorrow.

The Swiss chard in the garden is abundant enough to make another Green Pie.  As soon as it dries out a bit (maybe by next June) I'll go harvest some.  After putting on hip waders. 

Seems I've been ignoring desk-type tasks lately so I'm bound and determined to work on them this afternoon.  (Somebody hold me to it, please.)

My List (which I keep on an 8-1/2" x 11" tablet) has one side devoted to "Inside" and the other to "Outside" items.  You can tell we've shifted (primarily) out-of-summer-into-fall mode because the "Inside" half of the paper is now longer than the "Outside" half.  Guess that means I won't have any trouble keeping myself busy until the weather changes in such a way that being outside is a smidge bit more desirable.

Great Day of Sunshine

We did have a lovely, warm(ish), sun-filled day all day yesterday but I didn't get as much done in the garden as I wanted.

About 1:30 p.m. Papa Pea banished me from outside as he was tearing apart the whole apiary dividing and combining the various hives to get them in the shape he wanted for the winter.  We had one heckuva lot of angry bees flying around, and he was afraid one (or more) of them would take out their upsetness on me.  I haven't gotten stung once this whole season, I'm happy to say, and didn't want to ruin the record so I abandoned my garden work for the day.

Good thing I got a lot done before then.

All the onions are harvested and laid out to begin the curing process.  Although the picture doesn't look like it, I planted an equal number of yellow and red onions.  I know the word is red onions usually don't keep as well as yellow ones, but I've always had good luck with them.

The slicing cukes in the cold frame are still producing like mad.  Even the trellis of pickling cucumbers (Papa Pea was going to make some fermented pickles, but changed his mind) which have no protection from the less than good pickle growing temps are doing well.  I've found that we like them chunked up in our kimchi mix and that's what I'm using them for.

What a haul of green peppers I found.  If you want to find me later today, I'll be in the kitchen making another double batch of stuffed green peppers for the freezer.

Lastly . . . Kowabunga, Chief!!  I found an eggplant!

Have you ever seen a more grotesquely formed eggplant?  Maybe it looks better from the other side.

No, I guess not.  The slugs apparently liked it though as there are all kinds of ugly-bugly slug nibbles all over it.  This was the only fruit that formed on any of my four plants.  Sigh.

Methinks the forecast for today's rain was accurate.  We've had rolling thunder all morning and now this.  The above picture, looking out our living room windows, was taken a couple of minutes ago at 8:58 a.m.  Is that spooky, or what?  It was actually that dark outside.  Aaaannd . . . the torrential rains just started along with really blowsy winds.  Batten down the hatches, men!

Waiting for Paint to Dry

That's just an expression.  In reality, I'm waiting for the dew to dry.

We've had wet, rainy days for the past several and more are forecast to begin tomorrow.  But today (promises, promises) is going to be full sunshine.  At least that's what they're telling us.

I have a bit of harvesting and LOTS of clean-up to do in the garden so while I wait for the paint the heavy dew to dry, I'm trying to accomplish some things inside here.

The geese are all fat and happy.  (Good thing for the healthiness of the gaggle because several of them are destined for the freezer this fall.)  They are nearly always together in a bunch, roaming the poultry pasture, gobbling green grass, swimming in the pond, making noise and sometimes looking for trouble.

This is Little Annie who arrived from the hatchery last year with her right foot folded completely under.

We splinted it and although it will always be a bit deformed, she walks without a limp and gets along just fine.

The white and gray duck in the center of the picture is Miss Friendly.  She's always eager to come "talk" with you.  And when you enter the pen with a feed bucket in your hand, she keeps pulling on your pant legs until a pan of feed is on the ground.  (Maybe she's not so much friendly as a little piggy.)

Despite the wet, cool weather some of our tomatoes are actually ripening.  (I can hardly believe it.)  This is an old heirloom, Oregon Spring, sometimes misshapen tomato, but delicious . . . if it can manage to ripen up here near the tundra.

I've got thirteen large pumpkins that are starting to turn color.  Yippee!

Just look at these apples on one of our dwarf trees! This shot is straight out of the camera with no color enhancing.

Can't say enough about these "Ring of Fire" sunflowers.  They're only about 4' tall, but are very prolific and last a long, long time as cut flowers.  Love 'em.

Here's my mint bed I've been coaxing along for a couple of years.  (Yeah, I know, most people find mint spreads like wildfire and can take over the acreage, but [sigh] not mine.)  It's finally (almost) filled the bed.  I've been cutting and drying it all summer to squirrel away for Papa Pea's daily cup o' mint tea.  Matter of fact, I have some in the dehydrator as we speak . . . and I'd better sign off and go check it!

Quilting Book Winner and Some Quilting of My Own

The winner of the three quilting books I offered as a giveaway in my last post is:

Susan of Susan's Blog

Thanks to all of you who entered the drawing.  Susan, if you will send me your mailing address, I'll get the books off to you pronto.

* * * * * * * * * * *

I've been able to spend a little time in my quilt room these last couple of weeks since gardening/harvesting season is winding down.

I just finished a set of four holiday place mats to replace the old, old, worn ones I made years ago.  (These old ones are so sad I didn't even use them last year.) 

These new ones are nothing complicated and didn't take long to do as they were a panel from Keepsake Quilting.  I cut them out, sandwiched and quilted them adding a binding of left over backing fabric . . . 

. . . rather than constructing them in pillowcase fashion as suggested.  

Each of the four is a little different, and I really liked the backing fabric, too.  I like these place mats so much I'm considering placing another order so I have more than four of them.

Can you believe it?  It's still September and I have holiday place mats made already.  Maybe I have more pep and energy (I've been complaining of the lack thereof) than I think.  At least for some things!

Time for a New Post (and a Giveaway!)

Ugh, I think I may be getting moldy.  (In both mind and body.  Now there's an ishy thought.)  We've been in another stretch of very damp, humid weather and nothing of what's left in the garden seems to ever dry out.  The slugs are happy as . . . well, as happy as slugs can be, and it's a race to see if I can harvest what's left to harvest before everything shows signs of slug nibbling.

Besides the downside of the clingy, wet weather, I think I'm probably suffering from end-of-a-busy season tiredness.  Not sleeping well at night which doesn't help at all.  Grump, grump, grump.  

Autumn is my favorite season and usually invigorates me in the same way spring does for many people.  I might have to buy a bottle of Geritol (do they even make that stuff any more?) to get me revved up again.

The wet weather has given me some time inside, and I've actually been doing a little quilting (more on that next post) and sorting in my quilt room.  Which brings me to the giveaway part of this post.  

I have three soft-covered (8-1/2" x 11") quilting books I'm offering to anyone who may be interested.

They are 9 Patch Reunion, Quilts from Squier Lane and Miss Rosie's Autumn Quilts.  All are listed on Amazon if you would like more information on them.

They go as a trio, all three books to the one name drawn.  Anyone interested?  (Because of economic reasons, entries are limited to the contiguous United States.)  If you'd like your name thrown in the hat, let me know in the comments section of this post.  Entries will be closed at 9 p.m. on Tuesday night, September 19th, and I'll draw a name and post the winner on Wednesday, the 20th.  It's time to start thinking of new projects to do this winter when the snow is falling, the wind is blowing and we've all got more time for some new projects.